Professor Michael Katz will become the second director in the history of the Institute of Management, Innovation, and Organization (IMIO) at the Haas School starting July 1. One of his top priorities will be to expand the Haas School's connections to the outside business community.
"Michael's decision to lead IMIO is very exciting news and will have profound implications on our progress in attracting top faculty and students in the future," says Dean Rich Lyons. "His willingness to lead our key innovation institute — a driver of innovation, groundbreaking research, and experiential teaching at Haas for many years — will help us move the school to another level."
As director of the institute, Katz will oversee about ten centers and programs, including the Management of Technology program, a joint program with Berkeley's College of Engineering; the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation; and the Center for Open Innovation. Haas@Work, the school's applied innovation program in which students drive innovation in larger organizations, also will be linked to the institute after Katz takes its helm.
Katz aims to promote the institute as the central hub, or one-stop shop, that connects faculty, students, and outside companies. While many centers under IMIO are already working very closely with the business community, Katz's goal is to create even more opportunities for students and faculty alike to work directly with people in the business world.
"I want the outside world to better understand how much Haas is doing and let people from the outside have a single point of contact so they'll know where to go within Haas to talk to various experts or seek help with some business problem," Katz explains.
Katz also wants IMIO and its centers to do more to bring the latest from the Haas School to the business community through forums and other outlets, thus fulfilling the public service role of Berkeley's mission as a public university. "I often find that people in a university setting approach things differently than in the business world," he notes.
In addition, Katz sees a huge opportunity to duplicate the success of the Management of Technology program through a collaboration with life sciences departments on campus, which would also capitalize on the Bay Area's large biotech industry. Katz says, "It's always a good thing for everyone concerned when Haas reaches out to the rest of the campus and draws on the expertise there."
Katz, who holds the Arun Sarin Chair in Strategy and Leadership at the Haas School, is an expert in network economics as well as antitrust and regulatory policy. His work focuses particularly on how such policy affects innovation and network industries such as telecommunications, credit card networks, and computer software.
He has been on the Haas faculty since 1987, but has been on leave to teach at NYU's Stern School of Business for the past two years. Katz will be teaching competitive and corporate strategy at the Haas School.
Katz also brings unique government experience to the position. He has been appointed to serve in federal government in Washington, DC, two times, first as chief economist of the Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 1996 and then as deputy assistant attorney general for economic analysis in the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division in 2001.
As director of IMIO, Katz will be following in the footsteps of Haas Professor David Teece, who stepped down last June after 25 years as director of the institute and its predecessor, the Center for Research in Management.